Though the U.S. has already banned all of these pesticides, including dimethoate, phorate and dichlorvos (used on blueberry, coffee and tomato crops, respectively), many Latin and South American countries still employ them. This poses a problem, ABC’s petition reads, because “billions of U.S. migratory birds overwinter in countries that currently have registrations for these pesticides.”

ABC contends that Executive Order 13186—a 2001 decree signed by former President Bill Clinton requiring executive federal agencies to take into account how their activities affect migratory birds, whether directly or indirectly—obliges the EPA to make this happed. “Doing so will not only potentially save millions of Neotropical migratory birds,” the petition states, “but will also encourage the use of legal, safer pesticides and non-chemical practices by foreign growers.”

Petitioning the EPA to ban substances toxic to birds isn’t new for ABC; in 2007, the organization asked the EPA to cancel import tolerances of carbofuran, what ABC’s Conservation Advocacy Director Michael Fry calls the worst pesticide in the U.S. for many birds.

ABC expanded its efforts this year by looking at all pesticides cancelled in the U.S. for which import tolerances still exist. “We got a list of 53 different pesticides,” Fry says. “Then we just did the background research. We found that 13 of those [the 13 petitioned against] were particularly hazardous to birds.” If the EPA doesn’t respond, ABC will likely sue, Fry says.